National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope

It is an honour and privilege to stand in for Hettie, author of our blog.  She is helping out at their business.

Hettie asked me to do a sort of review on our Quilt Festival; therefore I will take it on as good as possible. My idea is to take it from an overall view back to where we have started – in reverse then.

The Quilt Festival was held in Bloemfontein, Free State, at the Eunice High School from 1 – 6 July 2013.  This proved to be an excellent venue and we utilized the facilities to our best advantage. We are grateful that both the school and hostel made their facilities available to us.  They walked the extra mile for us and were very accommodating. 

After a period of two years, organizing the 17^th National Quilt Festival 2013 – Kaleidoscope - the committee is very satisfied with the goals that we have attained.

The main aim of the committee was to organize a welcoming, warm, friendly and affordable festival for all quilters from around the world, but mainly from South Africa. Our committee consisted of 21 women, represented the different quilting groups of our Oranje Quilter’s Guild.   

The entire committee met only four times a year – due to long distances.  At these meetings, it was expected from each member to give a full report and update on her portfolio. Each member was completely responsible for the planning and fundraising regarding her specific portfolio and was encouraged to have a sub-committee to assist with all the necessary arrangements.  

Due to Bloemfontein infamous cold winters, we feared the worst regarding attendance, but quilters came prepared!  Our expectations were exceeded as we welcomed all most 700 registered delegates from around the country and from as far as the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Sweden, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe!  We were overjoyed when our daily visitors count reached 1000 before week’s end.